No Decision On New Ohio House Speaker....Yet

Still no word on who the next speaker of the Ohio House might be. Republican state lawmakers met for hours and there’s no decision…..yet..with a vote by the full House scheduled for tomorrow afternoon.

House Speaker Pro Tem Kirk Schuring says the 65 member caucus needs to provide 50 votes for one person to serve as the speaker for the rest of this calendar year. He says Finance Committee Chair Ryan Smith led the vote total, but there’s a problem getting consensus needed from the rest of the caucus.

“We asked for a show of hands of who could not vote for the nominee on the floor. And that’s where we are at right now. We’re real close to the 50 but we are not there yet but we are close enough that we can get there and again, I just need to sit down with others and figure out what that pathway might be," Schuring said.

Smith and former Speaker Larry Householder have been angling for the Speaker position next year, but Householder didn’t put his name into this vote. Republicans are picking a nominee to replace Cliff Rosenberger, who resigned last month amid reports of an FBI inquiry about his travel and lobbyists. Copyright 2018 The Statehouse News Bureau. To see more, visit The Statehouse News Bureau.